Coal States Urge Trump Administration to Tackle Plant Closures
(Bloomberg) -- Six coal states are pressing the Trump administration to wrap up an almost two-year inquiry into whether coal and nuclear plant retirements are threatening the electric grid.In letters to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which overseas U.S. power markets, utility commissioners from Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming warned that plant closures are accelerating and “bringing increased attention to grid resilience and fuel security.”The appeal comes almost two years after the commission rejected a Trump administration bid to bail out money-losing coal plants, dismissing the proposal as unlawful. But the agency left the door open to future action, by opening an inquiry into whether regulatory changes are needed to keep the lights on. More than 200 comments have been filed with the commission since then, and more than a dozen coal-fired power plants have been decommissioned.Now the states hardest hit by coal’s decline are asking the ener...
